Contents

Digital Egg Drop

created: 20210725-0207

#STEMProject #STEM-Planning

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Digital Egg Drop

Description

This classic physics experiment is a really fun one! You get to create a descent vehicle for an egg dropped from a great height that helps the egg land gently enough to avoid going SPLAT!

Instead of testing design iterations on precious eggs, we can first prove out our vehicles using a micro:bit! It’s packed with sensors and has a display and speaker for feedback – we’ll use those to study the impact g-force of our landing. Once we’re satisfied with the data, we can swap out for the more fragile ovoid!

Key Assignments/Dates

Assignment

Competencies

Due Date

RPS code

Coding Explanation

Capsule Build

Data Collected

RPS code

The key here will be to get to a physical model quickly. With complex situations, it is often easiest to use the first build to help you understand what really matters! Build a working model–however basic–and analyze it to help design your beta model.  Extending will be a working system that achieves an optimal balance between the needs of the user and the constraints of the moment, along with a report that outlines and analyzes the main parts of the model.

Coding Explanation

The key here will be to get to a physical model quickly. With complex situations, it is often easiest to use the first build to help you understand what really matters! Build a working model–however basic–and analyze it to help design your beta model.  Extending will be a team that, without supervision, can choose tools and processes to create a high-quality artifact.

Capsule Build

A showcase of the science and mathematics of catapults. The goal is to show how you controlled the system to create an optimal system.  Extending will describe a list of variables, estimated with appropriate units, calculations where necessary, references, and appropriate units, as well as evaluating the quality and reliability of the estimates and potential risks due to error.

Data Collected

Let the warfare begin!  With any luck, your “gamma model” will bring all the benefits of three weeks of design and testing. Beyond the performance of your device, extending will reflect on the learning of the group and share how it connects to our experiences and efforts.  Extending in measurement will be a one-page summary of the efficiency of your system based on your measurement.

Artifacts

P1 DED microbit day-to-day

micro:bit 1

Getting Started with micro:bit

Day 1
Day 2

  • Get micro:bit kit

  • Download and load  code from at least one tutorial onto your micro:bit

  • Complete Rock Paper Scissors (under Games) and Micro Chat (under Tutorials)

  • Complete Rock Paper Scissors Teams (under Radio Games) - NOT a tutorial; instructions only (https://makecode.microbit.org/projects/rps-teams)- beware can be confusing.

Day 3

  • Elements of Code & Computational Thinking (Computational Thinking.pptx)

  • Win-Loss comparison (see RPS_win_loss_v1 and RPS_win_loss_v2 below)

Day 4

micro:bit 2

micro:bit sensors

Day 6

  • pick your preferred code from above

  • using the Radio blocks, figure out how to send and display the data on a second micro:bit

Day 7
Day 8

  • Above, but using two micro:bits (sender = sensor sensor & receiver = controller device)

  • controller device: ‘A’ sends start collecting data; ‘B’ sends stop collecting data; ‘A+B’ displays data received from sensor device

  • sensor device collects data and sends it to controller device

Day 9

  • collecting, sending and displaying Accelerometer Data

micro:bit 3

micro:bit data collection

Day 10

  • pull accelerometer data from virtual single device code (https://makecode.microbit.org/_a56btgHisTA4): what does it look like in excel?

  • how to open a .csv file in online excel?

  • load single device code onto your micro:bit.  wave it around.  pull the data and put it into excel: what does it look like, compared to the virtual data?

  • one column, no time.  what do we do?

  • excel programming fixes v micro:bit programming fixes

Day 11 (“Envelope Test 1.0”)

  • DataLoggerAccel_V2xx on micro:bit (make sure to decrease the pause to ~50 ms in the forever loop)

  • connect battery

  • “A” button

  • put in bag and drop

  • open bag and “B” button

  • connect to computer

  • (if open, close and) reopen BeagleTerm / TeraTerm

  • reconnect to micro:bit

  • “A+B” to display data

  • if not logging with TeraTerm, highlight data, copy, paste into notepad and name file “microbitData.csv”

  • Teams > Files > OneDrive > upload your .csv file

  • open in Excel

Day 12

  • Building “Envelope 2.0”

  • Collect and upload data from test(s) to Envelope2_0.xlsx

  • click .csv > opens in excel

  • click “viewing” (top-right) > “editing” > “convert”

  • in cell H1 type =A1

  • drag and fill to duplicate the data in the new cells

  • click H2 and edit to read =(A2-\(A\)2)/1000 to change the millisecond data to elapsed seconds

  • highlight columns I, J, K and click “Insert” > “line chart”

Day 13 - Moar Testing

  • goal - the lightest, strongest “Envelope” that provides the least amount of “damage” (spikes of accelerometer data; bouncing around) to the “egg” (micro:bit).

  • your job - provide evidence (video and data) showing progressive iterations of your redesign as you try to “soften” the landing.

Day 14

  • greatest survivable distance: 1m, 3m, 5m, 7m 9m

  • mass: grams (including parachute, if using one)

  • volume: cubic centimeters (including parachute, if using one)

  • at least one video reference

  • at least data tables: 1m, …

  • graph comparing 1m to second set/other sets of data

Variations

STEM Project Air Pressure Rockets Coding with Minecraft EE